A PATH TO HEAVEN

 

I walked a mile with pleasure

She chatted all the way;

But left me none the wiser

For all she had to say.

I walked a mile with sorrow

And ne’er a word said she;

But oh! The things I learnt from her

When sorrow walked with me.

-     Robert Browning Hamilton

 

I know not of any greater godly attribute than that of humility that this world of sorrow affords all those who travel its paths.

For a long time I have tried to unravel the enigma of the severity of this life’s suffering and the purpose thereof. I couldn’t understand why suffering affords godhood. Surely, there would have to be another way. I know, I have written about this more than once recently but I have finally received understanding that makes sense to me more than any other explanation and insight I have received concerning this subject.

I believe in this poem. My eyes have been opened to it. As I contemplated this morning I could plainly see that sorrow has taught me lessons that happiness never has. Sorrow has the power to induce humility which makes us teachable. I understood that the opposite would be the detrimental and spirit corroding attribute of pride.

A god could never be an entity full of pride. Pride seeks to elevate self at the expense of demeaning others. Pride is grounded in control. Control denies free will and seeks only self interest and elevation of one above the rest.

The Saviour excelled in humility when He sought the salvation of others to bring them to the station that He himself has. There was not an ounce of pride inside Him when He volunteered to be the way to the elevation of all the host of heaven, at His excruciating expense. The path has been provided but the price of learning has still to be paid, by each one of us.

Humility is crucial in our rise to exaltation. A god in the making needs its teaching power. King Benjamin defined this process in his address by saying that if we ‘humble ourselves in the depths of humility’ we will be: 1. filled with the love of God; 2. retain a remission of our sins; 3. grow in the knowledge of the glory of God; and 4. we will love our fellowman (Mosiah 4:10-12). Which one of these would not be needed in our rise to godhood?

If humility leads us to godhood, we can only imagine where pride leads…..we have a good example of that…..let us not follow there…..

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Divine Faith by Greg Collins)